We had a very late start due to chilling and enjoying the herby campsite. Also because I was chatting with some top guys from Plymouth Sophie and Hugh. It also turned out that they knew one of my friends from my childhood, small world!! They were hiking Te Aroha trail from North to South, total admiration and respect for their challenge. Good luck to you both from squirrel and Boy Scout.

Today’s ride took us up on to the volcanic plateau and involved a lot of early climbing.

We even managed to out run a T-Rex inorder to reach the Scooby Doo style winter sports ghost town of National Park.

We had lunch sheltering on the balcony of a derelict bar watching the odd backpacker getting picked up and driven off to the start of one walk or other. We got chatting to one guy who turned out to be a Russian mathematician academic who was off for a bit of sightseeing between conferences.

We ended in a campsite which was basically this dude Nicks garden, but what a view we had!! Plus we had the place to ourselves too.